Homeless man swept away by surging runoff in flood-control channel

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A man on a bicycle in the Dominguez Channel keeps a lookout for any signs of a man who was reported to have fallen into the rushing waters. Fire personnel were on scene all morning south of Artesia Boulevard, but no person or body was found. (Photo by Brad Graverson/Daily Breeze)

Paramedics attend to the victim who escaped the Dominguez Channel waters this morning in Gardena. Her boyfriend is still missing. (Street Heat Productions)

A woman scrambled to safety but her boyfriend was declared missing Monday after a river of water swept them away as they slept in the surging Dominguez Channel in El Camino Village, police said.

Three divers in the water, along with firefighters and police officers in the air and on the shore, searched unsuccessfully for the man for nearly three hours.

Police identified him as Alming Jason Dakers, 37. Dakers and his unidentified girlfriend were sleeping in the wash near El Camino College when they were knocked into the water about 5 a.m., Gardena police Lt. Vince Osorio said.

The rapidly moving current pushed the couple more than a mile through the channel, which goes east through Gardena and Harbor Gateway and south through Carson to the Port of Long Beach.

The woman managed to grab onto a ladder at the side of the wash, save herself and climb out at Artesia Boulevard and Normandie Avenue. Residents in the 1300 block of Cassidy Avenue heard her screams and called police, but officers could not initially locate her, Osorio said.

The woman soon ran into a McDonald’s restaurant for help, police said.

The woman was taken to a hospital while rescuers searched for her boyfriend. She was expected to recover, authorities said.

During the search, northbound traffic on Vermont Avenue was rerouted onto 177th Street and southbound traffic was detoured onto Cassidy.

Osorio said firefighters estimated the water was gushing at 35 mph.

“The water looked like it was at least 6 to 8 feet higher than normal,” Osorio said.

The channel filled with stormwater as early morning rainfall pelted the South Bay. Anticipating the rain, the Sheriff’s Department advised deputies to do patrol checks of waterways in their jurisdictions over the weekend to locate anyone who might be in harm’s way and to offer them a safer place to go.

Larry Altman has covered crime and court proceedings in Southern California since 1987. A graduate of Cal State Northridge, where he served as editor of the college newspaper, Altman has worked for the Daily Breeze since 1990. The Society of Professional Journalists named him a "Distinguished Journalist" in Los Angeles in 2006. Altman's work was featured twice on CBS' “48 Hours” and he appeared eight times with “Nancy Grace," who called him "dear." He has covered hundreds of homicides and many trials. Altman has crawled through a mausoleum to open a coffin, confronted husbands who killed their wives, wives who killed their husbands, and his coverage helped put a child molester and a murderer in prison. In his spare time, Altman is an avid Los Angeles Lakers and Dodgers fan, is the commissioner of a Fantasy Baseball league with several other current and former newspapermen, runs a real estate empire and likes to watch old movies on TCM.